Police communications supervisor Bill Browning and police Chief John Roche check out a new dispatching station nearing completion at police headquarters. The new console could be used with the emergency radio upgrade being proposed by several town departments. —Macklin Reid photo
A $4-million re-engineering of town radio communications — for police, fire and emergency medical services, highway trucks, schools, the parks crew — is something the selectmen say they’re sold on. It needs to be done. They’re just not sure when the town can afford it.
“This is a very expensive number, but one that is needed by our community,” First Selectman Rudy Marconi said.
At $4.2 million, the proposal for a new townwide digital “simulcast” radio system — designed to solve most the problems with areas of poor reception by re-broadcasting from four different directions at once — exceeds by itself the informal limit of about $3-million to $4-million that town officials try to maintain on the accumulation of capital projects and purchases for any one year.
“We try to maintain our capital at $3-$4 million — roads is $2 million alone,” Mr. Marconi said to fellow selectmen.
“So, if we’re going to look at this as an addition, we’re looking at $8 million capital.”
Selectwoman Di Masters felt the expense was one the town would have to face up eventually. “I got the report. I read it front to back,” she said. “It’s going to be expensive. At some point it’s going to be critical. We’re going to have to bite the bullet. We’re a modern town.”
Emergency radio coverage in town — like cell phone service — has long been known to be spotty, plagued by holes and “shadows” in reception that are caused by the town’s hilly geography.
The need to address the problem was emphasized in a Jan. 22 presentation to the Board of Selectmen by the Radio Communications Task Force, which includes representatives of most departments that use radios.
“Just last week there was an incident at the high school,” said Acting Fire Chief Kevin Tappe. “I was out there, and I can’t talk to firefighters — inside the high school.”
“This is a large sum, but necessary,” Selectwoman Di Masters said.
The reason the selectmen try to hold town capital expenses to $3 or $4 million a year is that they’re trying to reduce the town debt.
Ridgefield’s public debt peaked at about $142 million in 2003, after voters approved bonding to pay for the $34 million Scotts Ridge Middle School in 1999 and the $90 million ‘school bundle’ of projects 2000.
Town debt service runs about $13-14 million a year. About a third of that is interest and two-thirds, or about $9 million a year, reduces the principal.
But the town also borrows more for new projects and purchases that are approved by voters in each year’s capital budget. By holding that total to about $4 million a year, the selectmen can assure that there’s a roughly $5 million net reduction to the outstanding debt each year. Doing this, the debt’s been trimmed from $142-million in 2003 to about $90 million today.
But if the radio upgrade were put into a given year’s capital budget, and town officials kept to their informal limit, there would be no room for any of the wide-ranging capital requests that come in from various departments.
It would mean a year of no new highway trucks, no computer upgrades, no road repaving. No new ambulances, fire trucks or police equipment. No repair projects in the schools, or new roofs on leaky buildings, no renovations of structures like the police station.
The selectmen and finance board have made exceptions to this policy, allowing big one-time expenses to be considered separately — a $5 million donation to the library, $7 million for the Schlumberger purchase.
But doing that throws off the pay-down schedule for debt. Do it too often and the town isn’t reducing debt, it’s treading water — or going deeper into the hole.
“We’re on target to reduce our debt,” Mr. Marconi said in an interview.
“When we have requests like $4 million for radios, $5 million for the library. It’s tough to stick to that schedule,” he said.
That’s a major reason the selectmen are trying so hard to sell pieces of the Schlumberger property, and recover some of the $7 million voters approved spending buying it.
The selectmen were pleased that the proposed new radio system would be compatible with the new multi-station dispatching console now being installed at the Police station with $235,000 approved in this year’s budget.
Radio Communication Committee Chairman Dick Aarons said both the new console and the proposed system would accommodate an eventual change to centralized dispatching of police, fire, and ambulances services.
This could result in “tremendous savings,” he said.
The selectmen questioned the notion of a $4 million proposal with no alternative bids, in which the company that would get the contract — Motorola — had played a major role in designing the project.
“It’s your software. Your hardware. Is there other software out there?” Selectwoman Barbara Manners said.
“Hardware and software is $4.2 million,” Mr. Marconi said. You go to referendum: ‘Is it going to bid?’ Is there another supplier?”
“That’s the first question the task force asked,” Mr. Aarons replied. “The fact is, our fire department, our police department, are Motorola-based. We always been Motorola-based.”
Members of the committee said Motorola dominated the market, and was the major supplier of radio systems of this nature.
“Motorola is the standard of the industry,” said Police Chief John Roche.
Chief Roche recalled a similar situation several years back when the police department went with a low bidder on a technical upgrade, then had unexpected problems and long waits for service calls.
“It took us five years to recover from all we did not see,” he said.
Motorola and its local affiliate built most of the radio systems used nearby towns, as well as Ridgefield’s current system, and provide good service when there are problems, the committee said.
Mr. Aarons noted that all the design work done by Motorola so far had been done without charge.
Still, a no-bid situation left the selectmen uneasy.
“Usually you look at something, you say here’s the Cadillac, here’s the Chevy,’ ” Selectman Andy Bodner said. “We have no other options.”
The selectmen asked if the radio project was the top capital budget priority for the next year. Police Chief Roche said it was high on the list, but came after the department’s revived request to renovate and expand the police station.
Fire Chief Kevin Tappe said the radio upgrade was important, but not the top fire department priority this year.
A few days after the presentation, Mr. Marconi still looking for a way to finance a $4 million radio upgrade without throwing the debt reduction out of whack.
“There’s no doubt we need an upgrade,” he said. “I’ve been told that by many of our communities that surround us.
“I want everyone to know, our police officers are safe. Our firefighters are safe, our EMS services,” he added.
“We need to discuss how we address this $4 million request while at the same time staying on schedule to reduce our debt,” Mr. Marconi said.
“A tax increase, I’m not in favor of that,” he said. “But we can maybe spread out our capital requests other than that, making room for a radio purchase.”